The Midnight Watch

Chapter 23

I know it's been a while *hides in corner* but I've been on holiday. Courtesy of Make a Wish, so shout out to them. The genies really are magical. The updates should be back to normal now (I hope). Every other week, and maybe a bit more often.

So how are we? Good? Tired? Hungry?

Team Nate? Team Kai? Team Wyatt? (god, I hope not)

Simply don't care and want to get on with the plot?

Make your choices now. But choose wisely.

How Kai had gotten a phone, I had absolutely no idea. Maybe he talked an older guard into letting him borrow it, or maybe he had smuggled it in. Either way, I didn't care about anything except hearing my mother's voice in my ear. It had only been a few weeks, but so much had happened in those few weeks that I felt a completely different person had said goodbye to her outside Evarlin valley.

"Hello?" she asked when I dialled the number.

"Hey." I grinned like a Cheshire cat. "It's me — Sav."

A brief silence. A choking sound that sounded like a relieved sob. "Savannah. Goddess knows how I've missed you. How is everything? Are you getting along okay?"

"It's great, Mum. I'm really damn great," I replied. Kai had left me alone on the balcony for privacy. With the moon in the sky and the stars lighting up the world, I had rarely felt so at peace.

"It's been quiet in the house, you know. Your father and I hardly know what to do with ourselves anymore," she told me.

I had to cut her off, much to my shame. "Just put the catching up on hold for a moment. I'm sorry to do this, but I need information."

Confusion and interest. "Of course. What is it?"

"It's about Seb, actually," I almost whispered. For five years, my parents had hardly spoken his name. It was one of those taboo subjects I was afraid to breach. My aunt Lydia had given birth to Seb when she was very young. Unable to look after him, she'd asked her sister to raise him, who was already starting a family. Consequently, Seb had been as much my parent's son as their nephew.

"What about him, honey?" she asked in a cautious, strained voice.

"What was Seb involved in?" I asked. This time, barely concealed anger jumped to the surface. Didn't my parents think I deserved to know what Seb had died for? He had been closer than a brother, my best friend in the whole world. I wasn't some kid to be coddled anymore.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Savannah."

It felt like a lie. The last five years of my life were starting to feel like a lie.

"Yes, you do. You're still going to pretend? I watched him die, you know. I watched Seb die, and no one ever told me why." I kept repeating his name — it felt important somehow.

She drew in a sharp breath, though I couldn't tell if it was anger or fear through the phone. "He was part of the Moon Guard, but you already knew that, didn't you? I don't know what else to tell you."

"Why don't you start with how he knew Nathan Silveryn?" I shouldn't be talking to my mother that way, but in that moment, I didn't care. I thought I had every right to be angry.

"Who's Nathan Silveryn?" She wasn't even bothering to feign confusion any more.

"The one who broke into our house last week. But you already knew that, didn't you?" I threw her own words back at her.

"Sav..." Mum said with hardly concealed fear in her voice. If she was using my chosen name, then things must be getting serious.

"Please just tell me."